Video Game Review: Dead Space

Nov. 28, 2008— -- Turn down the lights, turn up the volume and get ready to have the living heck scared out of you. Electronic Arts' new creepy space-horror game "Dead Space" is exactly the kind of thing that fans of survival-horror games drool over.

All of the action of a first-person-shooter with a dash of character customization,combined with the methodical pacing of a perfectly executed Hollywood thriller, make this dark and bloody journey the start of what could be a new and very profitable franchise for EA.

Despite a compelling story line, an immersive environment and sound effects that will make your skin crawl, players of genre favorites like "Doom 3" may experience a little deja vu when confronted by the game's enemies. A relatively linear gameplay experience may also impede replayability, but the lack of innovation is dwarfed by the atmospheric journey "Dead Space" delivers.

In "Dead Space," players step into the role of Issac Clark, an engineer for a deep-space mining company sometime in the distant future. Clark and his fellow crew mates are sent by their employer to investigate a distress call from the massive "planet-cracker" class spaceship, the USG Ishimura. In what seems a strange coincidence, Clarke receives a strange message from his former girfriend who's aboard the Ishumura, before arriving at the strangely silent ship.

Under the assumption that the crew can fix whatever mechanical failure has caused the Ishimura to send out the distress signal, they attempt to board the giant ship. It doesn't take long for Clarke to be seperated from his cohorts and to realize that something terrible is happening aboard the craft.

Hideous monsters great and small stalk the ships corridors and hide in its shadows, some with the ability to reanimate the dead. The only weapons available to fight off the ghoulish hordes are the modified mining and engineering equipment Clarke can find laying around the ship. His only protection, the heavy deep space gear he boarded with.